Del ran over to her parents and hugged them. They were glad to see her smiling, even though the parting was somewhat emotional. "I need my suitcase," she said, opening the boot.

"You can't carry that on your own," Richard warned, heaving out the large blue suitcase, the red-and-white-starry holdall, the violin, the laptop and the camping rucksack. "Get someone to help you."

"Oi, Spook!" she yelled immediately, and Spook ran over. "Help me with this, would you? With all your army cadet muscles and that." Spook obliged, heaving the case up the first step.

"What have you got in here? Rocks, or something?" she gasped, when she felt the weight.

"Books," Del replied. "What would you expect from me?" But Spook didn't reply, too busy was she with struggling with the case.

Eventually they managed to get everything up into the room that was to be Del's. The case was soon open on the floor. "Spook, you might want to stay and watch this," said Del, laughing. "I've got some seriously odd stuff in here." As she unpacked, Spook made a list of everything out of the ordinary:

- Notebooks. Not unusual on their own, but the sheer quantity was slightly odd

-Flute and piccolo.

-Tin whistle

-Irish dancing shoes: light and heavy

-Black skirt with silver embroidery

-Large empty box file

-A book with no title.

"What's this?" Spook asked, holding up the latter. It was completely unmarked on the front, sides and back, but she wasn't sure if Del would let her open it. What if it was a diary or something?

"Look inside," Del suggested, so Spook did. What she found just confused her even more: it was all written in symbols.

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